India, April 29 -- Meta-owned WhatsApp has banned 9,400 accounts in India for involvement in digital arrest scams since January 2026, as part of a coordinated regulatory crackdown. The action, disclosed in a recent status report presented by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the Supreme Court, follows sustained policy pressure amid a surge in online fraud cases targeting Indian users.

As per a LiveLaw report, the enforcement move is part of a wider government initiative involving the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), law enforcement, and digital platforms to address sophisticated financial cybercrime. Actions taken thus far include faster SIM bl...